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Do you really want the grid taking energy out of your car when it needs it? Would you want petrol stations siphoning fuel out of your car when they are running

Do you really want the grid taking energy out of your car when it needs it? Would you want petrol stations siphoning fuel out of your car when they are running low?

MontyCarloHall 4y ago
Why not, as long as I got paid for it?
- jstanley 4y ago
  Because you'll get back to your car to find that its tank is empty and you can't drive anywhere. They'd have to pay a substantial premium for that to be worthwhile.
  - Misdicorl 4y ago
    It won't drain below X% and will charge when below Y%
  - jffry 4y ago
    I mean obviously there would be some kind of floor in terms of how much range you are willing to be left with. If you're willing to discharge your car lower, you can take greater advantage of arbitrage opportunities, but obviously your car could be lower at any point in time.
  - pornel 4y ago
    You can control how much is given to the grid, and say that e.g. it has to have 60%+ left at all times. There's no need to keep cars charged to 100% all the time. They already have batteries that are overkill for daily commutes, and if you suddenly need to make a long trip, you can top it up in 20 minutes from a highway charger. BTW, on the Internet there's always some guy who just has to have a 500-mile daily commute while towing a boat, through a desert, in snow, uphill both ways. That's fine, they can opt out. Note that the charging connector isn't a dumb plug like a household appliance. It has a two-way communication protocol that negotiates all of the parameters.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - ddenchev 4y ago
    Potentially draining down the battery down to 80%
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
richiebful1 4y ago
That seems pretty alarmist. This system hasn't been implemented yet, but when it is, I'm sure electric vehicle owners will be able to set the conditions at which they push energy onto the grid: electric price > $X, only drain battery to Y%, etc. If you gave me $3 for the gallon of gas I bought yesterday for $2, I would sell it if I had 10 gallons in my tank
- thomaslord 4y ago
  Even better, a very similar system is currently being implemented by Tesla (under the name Tesla Virtual Power Plant). It's for their Powerwall product rather than the cars, but I think it's safe to assume they'd design a similar system for their cars. It looks like the Virtual Power Plant program lets you configure a backup reserve, so you can choose how much of the capacity you keep for yourself and only push a small portion of the battery's capacity to the grid.
Misdicorl 4y ago
Yes. Because it means fewer peaker power stations need to be built. And I care a hell of a lot more about that than whether my battery is at 86% or 94% when I wake up or get out of work.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

Do you really want the grid taking energy out of your car when it needs it? Would you want petrol stations siphoning fuel out of your car when they are running low?

MontyCarloHall 4y ago

Why not, as long as I got paid for it?

jstanley 4y ago
Because you'll get back to your car to find that its tank is empty and you can't drive anywhere. They'd have to pay a substantial premium for that to be worthwhile.
- Misdicorl 4y ago
  It won't drain below X% and will charge when below Y%
- jffry 4y ago
  I mean obviously there would be some kind of floor in terms of how much range you are willing to be left with. If you're willing to discharge your car lower, you can take greater advantage of arbitrage opportunities, but obviously your car could be lower at any point in time.
- pornel 4y ago
  You can control how much is given to the grid, and say that e.g. it has to have 60%+ left at all times. There's no need to keep cars charged to 100% all the time. They already have batteries that are overkill for daily commutes, and if you suddenly need to make a long trip, you can top it up in 20 minutes from a highway charger. BTW, on the Internet there's always some guy who just has to have a 500-mile daily commute while towing a boat, through a desert, in snow, uphill both ways. That's fine, they can opt out. Note that the charging connector isn't a dumb plug like a household appliance. It has a two-way communication protocol that negotiates all of the parameters.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- ddenchev 4y ago
  Potentially draining down the battery down to 80%
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

richiebful1 4y ago

That seems pretty alarmist. This system hasn't been implemented yet, but when it is, I'm sure electric vehicle owners will be able to set the conditions at which they push energy onto the grid: electric price > $X, only drain battery to Y%, etc. If you gave me $3 for the gallon of gas I bought yesterday for $2, I would sell it if I had 10 gallons in my tank

thomaslord 4y ago
Even better, a very similar system is currently being implemented by Tesla (under the name Tesla Virtual Power Plant). It's for their Powerwall product rather than the cars, but I think it's safe to assume they'd design a similar system for their cars. It looks like the Virtual Power Plant program lets you configure a backup reserve, so you can choose how much of the capacity you keep for yourself and only push a small portion of the battery's capacity to the grid.

Misdicorl 4y ago

Yes. Because it means fewer peaker power stations need to be built. And I care a hell of a lot more about that than whether my battery is at 86% or 94% when I wake up or get out of work.

deleted 4y ago

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